MOSCOW, Idaho (RNS) — In 1977, Doug Wilson stepped behind the pulpit of a small Pullman, Washington, church for the first time. The 24-year-old Navy veteran, now armed with a guitar, had been leading worship at the 2-year-old congregation when the church’s lead preacher left unexpectedly. Wilson had no grand vision of building a movement, or that Christ Church, as it came to be called, would one day be the most scrutinized congregation in America.
“There’s no real objective explanation for it,” Wilson, now 72, said of his church’s moment in the national spotlight in a recent interview. “I think it’s the hand of God.”
But critics say that Christ Church’s renown has less to do with the Almighty than with Wilson’s dedication to Christian nationalism and his ties to like-minded officials in the Trump administration and among its allies. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has attended a Christ Church-affiliated congregation in Tennessee and has amplified Wilson’s most controversial views, including his argument that women should not be allowed to vote. In the space of a month in April 2024, Wilson was interviewed by Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk on their respective podcasts.
Christ Church has also had a powerful effect on its own community, drawing approximately 3,000 of Moscow’s population of 25,000, as well as on the conservative Christian world, through a network …